Bookninja began as an online forum for a bunch of writers to kibitz and argue about the state of the book world but has since evolved into…an online form for a bunch of writers to kibitz and argue about the book world. The difference? Now thousands of other people—including other writers, publishing folk, and many intrigued readers—are listening in and even joining the chat. The conductor, head vocalist, and stage hand for this bookish choir is George Murray, who co-founded Bookninja with fellow author Peter Darbyshire back in 2003, when the phrase “book blog” still had to qualified with some form of descriptor for the web-challenged.

Books@Torontoist editor James Grainger spoke with Murray about the past, present, and future of the pioneering books blog.

Here’s the full cover, including jacket copy and sleeve recommendations, for Glimpse. I think it looks fantastic and I can’t wait to finally have it in hand. It’s funny how you can still get excited time after time by these things. I’ve been very lucky with covers (except for that first one… woof), and this is continuing the trend towards greatness in design. Thanks, ECW. Click on the image below to enlarge and read the text.